Linkpost | 2.9.2012

• Building Windows for the ARM processor architecture – Microsoft finally provides some details about how Windows 8 on ARM processors will work. It won’t run legacy desktop apps, but there will be a desktop interface available, Windows chief Steve Sinofsky says.

• Steve Jobs’ FBI File Released – The file contains a background investigation for a possible appointment to the President’s Export Council, and an investigation into a 1985 bomb threat against Jobs’ life. The document is embedded below.

• The iPhone is a nightmare for carriers – The subsidies they must pay Apple to keep the cost of the iPhone low on their networks significantly hurts their bottom lines. The more iPhones they sell, the lower their margins.

• We are sorry. – Path apologizes for uploading iPhone contact lists without asking. The company destroyed the contact data it acquired and has moved to an opt-in process for acquiring contact information.

6 Responses

Dwight, what about the assertion that due to iOS design, all apps have unfettered access to the contacts list? If true, and if companies other than Path have been routinely harvesting user contact data, that’s a much bigger deal than just the Path story.

On Android, a user has to explicitly allow the app to access the contacts list, so at least there’s the ability to know it’s happening. That does nothing to stop the app from harvesting the data and transmitting it back to the home office like Path was accused of doing, of course, so it’s still a concern there too.

If my contact info is in someone else’s phone, and that contact info gets harvested without my consent…what the heck?? That thought does not make me happy.

The conditions for developers to submit apps to Apple’s store does prohibit such content uploads without a user’s consent, but as the Path incident shows, that’s apparently not enforced, or at least Apple didn’t check it in this case. There does need to be a change iOS that requires a user to OK contact list uploads.

This is not the first time this has happened, by the way. The popular Dragon Dictation app was found early on to be uploading contact list information, which Dragon said was done in order to improve the app’s ability to recognize the names of contacts. Dragon now requires approval before that’s done.

Dwight, if you re-read the Tune-Core iTunes Match royalty article, you will note that all Tune-Core artists combined received $100k, not a single artist. (Of course, bigger stars not with Tune-Core may have gotten more, but it is not referenced in the article.)

Nobody’s poised with a stun pressed against the fat, profit filled bellies of the carriers threatening to squeeze of a series of jolts if they pass on adding the iPhone to their inventory. I’m sure they could swing a pretty sweet deal on handsets/plans with RIM right now. Cipher me how 100% of RIM would be better for them than 5% of Apple. My bet is it’s a smoke screen & they love the deal…

Someone else done did the cipherin’ fer ya…Both Needham and Canaccord … maintaining a Buy rating on the stock. At the current market cap, Apple weighs more than ten percent of NASDAQ and has 52 times Research In Motion’s [RIMM] valuation of just $8.45 billion.